Conversationalist
by Omicron the IceQueen
Summary: Trade Story: Cliffjumper and Arcee just arrived on 'Earth' (odd name for a planet) and are alone in the desert and... yeah, lets see how long they last


**Queen's notes**: Okay... this is a trade story that popped out when while transcribing the last lines of the TF:Prime episode "Out of the Past" for prep work for this story... then the rest of the story just was suddenly here and its an hour later...

Sorry this trade is out of order to my other friends on the trade list, but this did just take a life of its own.

As and added note, there might be some more chapters, but only this first one is a part of the trade (you can still enjoy the other chapters!). I want to explore more of Arcee and Cliffjumper exploring earth before running into Optimus' team.

**Conversationalist**

A star.

Bright, warm and so very welcome to him, with no one other than his partner on his scanners as well as fading spacebridge energy... There was no one yelling at them, no shots being fired and no Decepticon war lords slash war criminals.

So the mech was perfectly happy to take a moment with his optics shuttered and his gray face tilted in to the sun light as the mech just absorb that warmth. Basking not just in the light but also something else that came from that high of victory and the triumph of escape from a seemingly trapped doom by exploding things.

"Think Shockwave survived?"

"I hope so," Cliffjumper purred in answer, felling the transformation triggers in his arms twitch in response of the raw and so very resent memory. "I want a rematch." His purr became deeper as his listened to Arcee stir and sit up beside him.

The mech didn't move more than stretching and luxuriating in the feeling of temporary but well-earned peace. At the feeling of hands on his arm and middle one indigo optic un-shuttered as he lifted his head, watching as Arcee used his frame to push herself off. He grunted as she kick him for reaching up to grab aft but it was so worth it in Cliffjumper's opinion.

"Lets find Optimus..." Arcee hesitated, looking down at the mech as he propped himself up on elbows before rolling and sitting up on his knees with a groin. After a moment she offered more than just her hand to the bigger mech with her next word, "...partner."

The red mech's dark shaded optics lit up as he closed one hand around hers, feeling Arcee grip two if his digets

"Hehe, rich with energon eh?" Cliffjumper mused as he looked around the dry, barren and seeming completely lifeless dessert expanse. "Hope the whole rock doesn't look like this." He kicked a clump of dirt and smaller rocks so it scattered in front of him.

The blue femmie shrugged as she stooped to catch Cliffjumper's right thigh and inspect the visible damage on that leg, "You never know with organic planets." Arcee felt larger hand trail over her back where she herself had been hit, the mech repaying the favor of inspection.

Though Cliffjumper was also getting an happy optic-full of the rest of the femmie's back side. "Reminds me of when I was lost in the sea of rust back on Cybertron with Jazz." He said as he got a smack to the hip for another touch that lingered too long on a non-damaged spot.

"About the right color." Arcee agreed with the comparison as she stood back up. Her winglets and spines held up high, but the aggressive body language didn't affect the mech as he fallowed after her when Arcee started off in a random direction.

He paused. "Except I was separated from my unit- had no one to talk to for what seemed like forever."

"Talk at?" Arcee's calm voice almost hid her subtle jab in the question.

That still got another bark of laugher from Cliffjumper as he draped a heavy arm over the blue femmie's shoulders. "Admit it! You _love_ the company!" Cliffjumper leaned down, his habit of invading personal space hadn't left at all since being tossed in the same holding cell as Arcee. She looked up into the grinning gray face, "Besides, my talking save my aft back then- and saved ours didn't it?"

"Do I even dare ask what you did?" Arcee asked, though deep in her divided processer she was privately wondering why she wasn't pushing the mech off her as they walked.

"Yeah!" Cliffjumper laughed and then gave an overly dramatic shutter with a spluttering of his alternate mode's engine to empathize his words despite his grin, "He's a huge-aft brut- bigger than any of the Primes, Megatron or even Shockwave. Fiery breath, thick scales, carries a sword bigger than you-"

Arcee frowned, "Who or what are you babbling about...?"

"Goes by the name of Grimlock," Cliffjumper continued and was clearly pleased with himself as the femmie under his arm twitched and flinched under his arm.

"You're telling me you fought against _him?_" Arcee demanded, skeptical once she recovered from the momentary lapse at the name of the once Autobot Military commander.

"Naaah," Cliffjumper shook his head, then admitted, "actually it was a lot of running away from the big mech before he realized I wasn't a 'Con- this was after whatever Megatron and his forces did to reformate Grimlock and his team. Let me tell you those guys were _slagged off!_" He lifted his arms to wave before pausing as a tiny, in comparison to him, bird was startled out of the odd green colored and spiky cluster of pads of organic floral material.

Distraction engaged!

"What the frag was that?" Cliffjumper wanted to know, stepping away from Arcee, his optics tracing the flying, feathered organic as it dipped a flew away in a hurry. Mentally comparing it to other fliers he'd seen on and off of Cybertron. Then he turned back to the planet, stepping over to crouch on his heals, claws digging into the earth with one hand on the ground and the other on his right knee.

"Native life," Arcee replied as she watched the mech for a moment before looking around, scanning with more care and finding that there was quiet a lot of life then they first thought. It was just on a much smaller scale. "Its all so tiny..."

"Just like you!"

The femmie twitched, then as Cliffjumper laughed at her reaction Arcee turned her back on him and walked away from the snickering mech.

"Aw, come on Arcee," Cliffjumper shook his head as he stepped over the patch of spiky pads to another interesting floral plant as he semi-fallowed the femmie. This one was more pole like, just as spiky and had bent extensions on the side. The red mech poked one, only to have it snap off and he scrambled to catch the part. Looking around with wide optics, he tried to put it back on but rapidly subspaced the branch as Arcee started to turn around. He gave her and awkward smile while she eyed him as if trying to figure out what he'd just done wrong before revving softly in the equivalent of a sigh. "Where to know?" he asked to distract her.

"I'm not sure," Arcee extended her long range scanners, but her makeup was for shorter range. "Cliffjumper, come here I need to use you."

"Thought you'd never ask!" The mech grinned as he came, "Though not sure how good I'll be in comparison to normal. Shockwave, that fragger, his last shot was nearly on the cables between the legs."

There was a long, long pause before that part of the desert echoed with the sound of crashing metal while Cliffjumper was impacting the ground for the second time on this planet. He groaned but once again found that it was worth the pain (hey, he wasn't kidding about how close that shot between his legs had been!) as the femmie stood on his back and yelled at him.

"You slagging pervert! We're on an alien planet, isolated from any possible allies, no idea of the native life forms are hostel or not and you can only thing about is interfacing?!" Arcee's knee guards were pressing down against his back as she grabbed the mech by the horns.

"Not all femmie," Cliffjumper grunted as he planted his fists on the ground and rose up, the moving weight on his back and shoulders not too much of an inconvenience. "I could use some energon too. Think there's any nearby?" Pushing off his own knee the front line warrior stood with Arcee still gripping one horn, her other arm coming around to try and strangle him, but the mech's muscle cables and the hidden fuel lines were thicker than normal even before the war. He'd been a bouncer and body guard after all and needed that protection.

"You- you-" Arcee struggled for a proper insult.

"Hansom mech?" Cliffjumper tried as he wrapped one hand completely around Arcee's forearm around his neck.

"-Fraging aft-" Arcee growled as the mech reached back and grasped one of her winglets with his other hand.

"Been called that before," the mech shrugged to push the femmie up higher with an arm reaching behind his back.

"Idiot- what are you doing?" Arcee demand as she was manhandled.

Cliffjumper shrugged again in half agreement as he pulled, feeling the femmie's grip on his left horn tightened, "Eeeeh, maybe... done a few things that didn't turn out so well. Hold still femmie."

She hit his head with her free hand, "The pit I will you womanizer!"

"That I most differently am," the mech chuckled deeply as he pulled Arcee over his head and off his back. Deftly shifting the now struggling femmie to pin her legs be between his right arm and body. He gripped her hip while he had a grip on her upper arm and elbow joint to pull her hand off his horn while her other arm was stuck between them.

"What are you doing?" Arcee demanded, jerking her knees but the angle was wrong and the mech was physically stronger and now that he had a hold Cliffjumper wasn't letting go as he hunched over her. Her purple ringed optics narrowed and widen as the mech used his arm to push her shoulders and head up again.

"Reward of an epic escape," Cliffjumper purred as he closed his lips over Arcee's, the purr deepened even more after the startled pause from her.

_The sheer audacity of the mech!_ Arcee thought, letting the herself try to gore the mech with her knee guards again but couldn't. The shock that bled to anger then melted into surprise as she realized the kiss wasn't forceful but...waiting...

...would it hurt?

Cliffjumper loosened his hold on Arcee as he knelt, letting her legs drape over the thigh of his bent knee. The gray hand trailed up from her hip to side and over her front, Arcee's hand moved over top his as the two Autobots let the former stress drain out with these actions as the sun of this alien world heated their systems.

Really.

It was sun.


End file.
